Egypt Calls for International Help in Row Over Ethiopian Mega-dam

By Staff, Agencies

Egypt called on African and international mediators to step in and ease worsening regional tension over an Ethiopian mega-dam that threatens to reduce water flows to downstream countries.

Addressing UN talks on water, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly decried a bitter stand-off with Ethiopia that was causing “rivalries and polarization” over Addis Ababa's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a hydropower facility on the Blue Nile.

Ethiopia started building the dam in 2011 and filled the reservoir behind it for the first time last year, causing a breakdown in long-running talks and fears in downstream Egypt and Sudan over reduced Nile water flow.